Angel Beaten
by Fancyclopedia
Summary: I picked up where Angel Beats left off. Yuzuru and Kanade are reunited, and basically this is more for my own benefit than anything else. I had to write something more satisfying than the tv show. That's about it.


Angel Beaten

A young man with fiery orange hair strolled down the city street. There was a steady stream of people bustling about from shop to shop, but he had no trouble keeping a brisk pace as he wove his way around the passing citygoers. Everything was lined up perfectly for his job interview, and provided there were no distractions, he might even be early for once! Yes, Yuzuru had life pretty good.

The girl everyone called Kana was tired. Felling antisocial, and even more shy than usual, she pulled her tan fedora down over her beautiful golden eyes. Absent-mindedly, she began humming while she waited for the bus. The tune had been stuck in her head for ages, although she couldn't remember its name, and none of her friends could place it either. She liked the song all the same, and its familiar, haunting melody relaxed Kana as she watched the people pour down the sidewalk.

Yuzuru stopped dead in his tracks as soon as the hummed tune hit his ears. The song tickled at the back of his mind, fluttering against forbidden memories and stirring up a storm of remembrance that raged throughout his consciousness. Kanade... He slowly turned to face the humming girl. Reaching out a hand to her shoulder, his eyes yet here for the first time in their lives. Kanade looked up, a wave of confusion passing over her eyes. Shock washed through her heart as its one impossible wish was granted. Her voice trembled, but a smile slowly crept onto her face. "Yuzuru?"  
"Kanade." Tears streamed down his face as he reached out to hold hers.  
"Yuzuru." His name was her lifeline as she sank into his embrace. Their tears fell, together at last, to the sidewalk below.

When the reunited lovers finally broke apart, they both clung to the other's hand. The whole of time and space had done its best to keep them apart, and neither one of them was willing to risk losing the other. Yuzuru kept looking down at the angel he'd been searching for his whole life. Lives ever. Who knew how long it had been since their school days? Time got very mixed up between lives, and though he was only 16 and she but a year his senior, it could have been centuries of lonely unfulfilled lives beforehand they finally met in this one.

Kanade took the lead, hailing a cab, and directing the cab driver to the first place she thought of. The only home she'd ever felt was really hers. Her family lived in a small, inner-city apartment, and as much as she loved them, there was no way they would ever understand the connection between her and Yuzuru. She wasn't even sure if she herself understood! So rather than to her house, she directed the cabby to the most beautiful, peaceful, and accepting place she could think of. Instantly she felt insecure as they walked through the garden gateway. The Japanese gardens had always made her feel at place (and only now was she starting to realize why) so showing Yuzuru was like showing him a piece of her soul. What if their purgatory friendship (courtship?) had been a mere fling for this boy who owned her heart? At the school, during their battlefront days, Kanade had been unfeeling, even an enemy, towards Yuzuru for most of the time. His friendly smile and loving eyes had brought back her joy, reinstating within her a passion, and an appreciation for life. When she lost him, she thought she would forget about him. That their lives would move on without the other. But she didn't. Hadn't. Couldn't. Even though she hadn't ever realized it, she had always felt incomplete, lacking her other half. Quite literally, her heart had belonged to Yuzuru, and even in her new life, it still did and always would.

Yuzuru pinched himself again. He was sure that this was just another realistic dream, and that he would soon wake up feeling lonelier and more lost than ever. It was certainly easier to believe that then that he had actually found the beautiful face who had haunted his sleep. There were other faces too, he recalled, a short, dark, boy who always appeared in a wash of holy light, a bright-eyed girl with wild pink pigtails, a lean boy with a mischievous grin, a tall girl in a high school uniform whose fierce eyes masked a broken heart. But most often, and always the most real and painful, was the girl who sat before him now. Kanade.

Kanade.

She had led him into a Japanese garden, and the two of them were sitting on a short bench beneath a bamboo canopy. Aside from a group of seniors puttering around with outdated cameras the garden was deserted, and a more peaceful setting couldn't be imagined. A beautiful view, thought Yuzuru, but all he could focus on was the shy, curious eyes peering up at him.

Here he was with the girl he'd been dreaming about meeting, and he couldn't think of a word to say. What an idiot! He could have slapped himself. "I've dreamed about you," he finally managed. _Wow idiot, way to creep out the girl._ But luckily, she seemed almost relieved to hear this.

"I have dreamed about you too. They're confusing, but I remember the battlefront, and high school, and angel wings made of binary. And you. Always you. Yuzuru?"

"Yes?"

"I think I love you."

"I love you too."


End file.
